Enhancement of the Josephson current by an exchange field in superconductor-ferromagnet structures

Abstract

We calculate the dc Josephson current for two superconductor-ferromagnet (S/F) bilayers separated by a thin insulating film. It is demonstrated that the critical Josephson current $I_{c}$ in the junction strongly depends on the relative orientation of the effective exchange field $h$ of the bilayers. We found that in the case of an antiparallel orientation, $I_{c}$ increases at low temperatures with increasing $h$ and at zero temperature has a singularity when $h$ equals the superconducting gap $\Delta $. This striking behavior contrasts suppression of the critical current by the magnetic moments aligned in parallel and is an interesting new effect of the interplay between superconductors and ferromagnets.